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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Just a quick reminder, you can submit links for this column via e-mail at rosiered23 (at) sparecandy (dot) com, and you can catch up with Spare Candy on Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr as well. Or! Leave a link in the comments! Self-promotion is perfectly acceptable here.

I hate to start the column off with such a horrific story, but this one cannot be ignored, and it needs attention. It is the case of an 11-year-old girl who was gang-raped. At least 17 people have been arrested last I heard, and there are as many as 28 total suspects, ranging in age from middle school to 27 years old. There are two things going on here: the obvious despicable crime of so many boys and men raping a sixth-grade, and the way the media is reporting the story. Take this example from the above link: "As the men had sex with the girl, others used their cell phones to take photographs and video, police said." Um, no, that should read "as the men raped the girl." An 11-year-old cannot legally consent to sex, so they did not "have sex" with her. They raped her. This type of reporting, along with a good dose of victim-blaming, has not gone unnoticed, and more than 40,000 people signed a petition requesting the New York Times do something about their horrible reporting on the story. The NYT has twice responded to the complaints. You can read all about that here (do click through all the links if you're not familiar with this story), and also check out "The Careless Language of Sexual Violence" on The Rumpus.

In other news:

The Nation: "Meet the Ohio Woman Who Would Have Testified Against the 'Heartbeat Bill.'"

AlterNet: "Pew Poll Finds Support for Legal Abortion Goes Up, So Does Support for Gay Marriage."

Politico: "Murkowski opposes Planned Parenthood, Title X cuts." She is the first Republican Senator to come out in support of Planned Parenthood.

Racialicious: "On Being Feminism’s 'Ms. Nigga.'" This is truly a great post.

The Guardian: "Feminism: What does the F-word mean today?" Annie Lennox is pure awesome.

Ms. blog: This link will take you to their coverage of International Women's Day, which was March 8. Also check out the Global Fund for Women's "Top 10 Wins for Women's Movements."

Shakesville: "Feminism 101: Helpful Hints for Dudes, Part 4." Seriously, this post well sums up a lot about rape culture. Also, I'm enjoying this series.

The Advocate: "Pelosi to Boehner: How Much Will DOMA Defense Cost?." Great question.

The Daily: "Equality begins at home: U.S. lags pathetically behind other nations in some basic rights for women."

Reddit: "Dilbert author deletes his "get over it" post, but the Internet never forgets." It's not often I link to reddit. But this? This is worth reading, just so you know what kind of person is behind the Dilbert comic.

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Spare Candy is a feminist and politically liberal blog covering women's rights issues in the United States and around the world, including equality for all, reproductive health, sexual assault, body image, pop culture and much more. I hope you join the conversation!

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